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Alex Spourdalakis, a 14-year-old autistic boy living in River Grove, Illinois, was murdered by his mother and godmother in June of 2013. After trying and failing to poison him with an overdose of medication, they stabbed him in the chest repeatedly before slitting his wrists. This murder was premeditated...

We, the undersigned disability and LGBT rights organizations, strongly condemn the police shooting of Kayden Clarke, an Autistic transgender man, in his home on February 4 in Mesa, Arizona. Clarke, who identified as having Asperger’s Syndrome – a diagnosis on the autism spectrum – was killed by police who...

On Wednesday January 6, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network joined Not Dead Yet and nine other disability rights organizations in filing a friend-of-the-court brief opposing physician-assisted suicide in New York. The brief, filed in a New York appeals court, supports a lower court ruling dismissing a lawsuit that sought...

On Friday, June 19th, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network issued a statement regarding the murder of Nicholas Richett. On Friday, June 12th, police in Melvindale, Michigan found the bodies of Nicholas Richett, a 20-year-old autistic man, and his father. Nicholas was murdered by his father. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network...

On Monday January 26, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Not Dead Yet, and 13 other disability rights organizations filed a second amicus brief in a case defending the rights of people with disabilities to basic medical care. Disability Rights Wisconsin filed the initial lawsuit, Disability Rights Wisconsin v. University of...

Last Saturday, I stood in a park across from the Capitol Building, surrounded by my community, as we read a list of names. I could have sworn time stopped; we read down one poster, and then another, and every time I thought we were done, there were more names....

by Meg Evans The characters and events in this short story are entirely fictional. Sometimes drawing a picture makes things more understandable. When Kelsey was younger she’d carried big spiral notebooks everywhere with her, sketching obsessively. Then her therapist, Dr. Caldwell, had told her that now she was in...

On Monday, December 23rd, ASAN issued a statement regarding the recent murders of Randle Barrow and Mickey Liposchok. Sunday, December 15th the body of 8-year-old Randle Barrow was found in Alabama, drowned by his mother who later killed herself. Nearly 700 miles away in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Mickey Liposchok,...

On Saturday, September 14th, Marilyn Edge murdered her son Jaelen, and her daughter, Faith. Jaelen, age 13, was autistic. His mother left his body with that of his nine-year-old sister’s, only revealing the location of their bodies to authorities after multiple suicide attempts. Jaelen and Faith join Issy Stapelton,...

The following statement was released by the Autistic Self Advocacy Network in response to the recent attempted murder of Issy Stapleton, an autistic teenager in Michigan. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network is profoundly concerned by a growing trend in the media and on the part of certain autism groups...